Off-Grid Multi-Carrier Microgrid Design Optimisation: The Case of Rakiura–Stewart Island, Aotearoa–New Zealand

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (20) ◽  
pp. 6522
Author(s):  
Soheil Mohseni ◽  
Alan C. Brent ◽  
Daniel Burmester

The establishment of the concept of sustainable, decentralised, multi-carrier energy systems, together with the declining costs of renewable energy technologies, has proposed changes in off-grid electrification interventions towards the development of integrated energy systems. Notwithstanding the potential benefits, the optimal capacity planning of such systems with multiple energy carriers—electricity, heating, cooling, hydrogen, biogas—is exceedingly complex due to the concurrent goals and interrelated constraints that must be relaxed. To this end, this paper puts forward an innovative new optimal capacity planning method for a first-of-its-kind stand-alone multiple energy carrier microgrid (MECM) serving the electricity, hot water, and transportation fuel demands of remote communities. The proposed off-grid MECM system is equipped with solar photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, a hydrogen-based energy storage system—including an electrolyser, a hydrogen reservoir, and a fuel cell—a hybrid super-capacitor/battery energy storage system, a hot water storage tank, a heat exchanger, an inline electric heater, a hydrogen refuelling station, and some power converters. The main objective of calculating the optimal size of the conceptualised isolated MECM’s components through minimising the associated lifetime costs is fulfilled by a specifically developed meta-heuristic-based solution algorithm subject to a set of operational and planning constraints. To evaluate the utility and effectiveness of the proposed method, as well as the technical feasibility and economic viability of the suggested grid-independent MECM layout, a numerical case study was carried out for Rakiura–Stewart Island, Aotearoa–New Zealand. Notably, the numeric simulation results highlight that the optimal solution presents a low-risk, high-yield investment opportunity, which is able to save the diesel-dependent community a significant 54% in electricity costs (including electrified space heating)—if financed as a community renewable energy project—apart from providing a cost-effective and resilient platform to serve the hot water and transportation fuel needs.

Author(s):  
Amir Ahadi ◽  
Shrutidhara Sarma ◽  
Jae Sang Moon ◽  
Jang Ho Lee

In recent years, integration of electric vehicles (EVs) has increased dramatically due to their lower carbon emissions and reduced fossil fuel dependency. However, charging EVs could have significant impacts on the electrical grid. One promising method for mitigating these impacts is the use of renewable energy systems. Renewable energy systems can also be useful for charging EVs where there is no local grid. This paper proposes a new strategy for designing a renewable energy charging station consisting of wind turbines, a photovoltaic system, and an energy storage system to avoid the use of diesel generators in remote communities. The objective function is considered to be the minimization of the total net present cost, including energy production, components setup, and financial viability. The proposed approach, using stochastic modeling, can also guarantee profitable operation of EVs and reasonable effects on renewable energy sizing, narrowing the gap between real-life daily operation patterns and the design stage. The proposed strategy should enhance the efficiency of conventional EV charging stations. The key point of this study is the efficient use of excess electricity. The infrastructure of the charging station is optimized and modeled.


Author(s):  
Malek Belouda

The penetration of renewable energy systems in remote areas contributes to reply to its accrued demand of electricity. Renewable energy systems as photovoltaic generation systems and wind generation systems are characterized by their unpredictable and intermittent character presenting the main drawback of these systems. Although this advantage, the problems caused by the intermittency of these systems can be resolved by employing a battery energy storage system. To this end this paper proposes and analyses an efficient and optimal methodology dedicated to applications fed by renewable energy systems. Since an optimal energy storage bank sizing is needed in order to assure the continuity and reliability of electricity supply of remote areas from these kinds of energy sources. The first part of this article describes the renewable hybrid system structure and different factors influencing the storage system dimensioning. Different scenarios of renewable sources power generations in order to develop an optimal battery bank sizing algorithm are investigated the second part of this article. The formulation of the algorithm is finally presented and discussed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 978 ◽  
pp. 174-178
Author(s):  
Xiao Bo Ma

Renewable energy power generation represented by wind power and photovoltaic power is intractable,which brings great challenge to safe operation of micro-grid. Designing energy storage system is an effective solution. This paper mainly researches how to obtain the energy storage capacity when the micro-grid is in island state, and put forward a method for determining the optimal storage capacity with probabilistic method based on statistics. According to the probability density function curve both the maximum charging and discharging power and the optimal capacity of energy storage system are calculated which can improve the economic benefit and renewable energy utilization.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 3944 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar ◽  
Shauhrat S. Chopra ◽  
Aneesh A. Chand ◽  
Rajvikram Madurai Elavarasan ◽  
G.M. Shafiullah

Energy, being a prime enabler in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs), should be affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern. One of the SDGs (i.e., SDG7) suggests that it is necessary to ensure energy access for all. In developing countries like India, the progress toward SDG7 has somewhat stagnated. The aging conventional electric power system has its dominant share of energy from fossil fuels, plagued with frequent power outages, and leaves many un-electrified areas. These are not characteristics of a sustainable and modern system in the context of the SDG7. Promoting renewable-based energy systems, especially in the context of microgrids (MGs), is one of the promising advances needed to rejuvenate the progress toward the SDG7. In this context, a hybrid renewable energy microgrid (HREM) is proposed that gives assurance for energy access to all in an affordable, reliable, and sustainable way through modern energy systems. In this paper, a techno-economic and environmental modeling of the grid-independent HREM and its optimization for a remote community in South India are presented. A case of HREM with a proposed configuration of photovoltaic/wind turbine/diesel generator/battery energy storage system (PV/WT/DG/BESS) was modeled to meet the community residential electric load requirements. This investigation dealt with the optimum sizes of the different components used in the HREM. The results of this model presented numerous feasible solutions. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify the best solution from the four optimized results. From the results, it was established that a PV + DG + BESS based HREM was the most cost-effective configuration for the specific location. In addition, the obtained optimum solutions were mapped with the key criteria of the SDG7. This mapping also suggested that the PV + DG + BESS configuration falls within the context of the SDG7. Overall, it is understood that the proposed HREM would provide energy access to households that is affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 860-869 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min-Su Kang ◽  
Young-Kwon Park ◽  
Kyung-Tae Kim

In this study, the optimal capacity of a battery and power conditioning system (PCS) of energy storage system were calculated. In addition, economic analysis was conducted to determine the optimal equipment standard, taking the government support plan into account. In addition, the changes in the power generation pattern were examined when the energy storage system and photovoltaic (PV) were connected to verify the power peak management efficiency of the energy storage system. Moreover, the effect of the energy storage system support policy was assessed by comparing the economic efficiency of single-PV equipment and energy storage system-connected equipment by the internal rate of return. Internal rate of return was analyzed by the change in cost of energy storage system equipment and the price of system marginal price/renewable energy certificate, which was a sales factor, and used for economic forecasting of the energy storage system. To accomplish this, the 2015 power generation output data (daily average 3.69 h power generation) of LG Hausys Ulsan station were converted to small-scale (3 MW) and large-scale (10 MW) solar power and a model that calculated the factor capacity of battery and the PCS capacity of the energy storage system was then constructed. Furthermore, the selected battery capacity and PCS capacity were analyzed separately by economic analysis to propose an energy storage system equipment standard, which could guarantee the optimal economic efficiency. Finally, based on the “Guideline for Management and Operation of Mandatory Supply for New and Renewable Energy” established by the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Energy, the profit model applied to the economic analysis was limited to an energy storage system charged from 10:00 to 16:00.


2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (11) ◽  
pp. 2641-2645
Author(s):  
Alexandru Ciocan ◽  
Ovidiu Mihai Balan ◽  
Mihaela Ramona Buga ◽  
Tudor Prisecaru ◽  
Mohand Tazerout

The current paper presents an energy storage system that stores the excessive energy, provided by a hybrid system of renewable energy sources, in the form of compressed air and thermal heat. Using energy storage systems together with renewable energy sources represents a major challenge that could ensure the transition to a viable economic future and a decarbonized economy. Thermodynamic calculations are conducted to investigate the performance of such systems by using Matlab simulation tools. The results indicate the values of primary and global efficiencies for various operating scenarios for the energy storage systems which use compressed air as medium storage, and shows that these could be very effective systems, proving the possibility to supply to the final user three types of energy: electricity, heat and cold function of his needs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 3820
Author(s):  
Noelia Llantoy ◽  
Gabriel Zsembinszki ◽  
Valeria Palomba ◽  
Andrea Frazzica ◽  
Mattia Dallapiccola ◽  
...  

With the aim of contributing to achieving the decarbonization of the energy sector, the environmental impact of an innovative system to produce heating and domestic hot water for heating demand-dominated climates is assessed is evaluated. The evaluation is conducted using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology and the ReCiPe and IPCC GWP indicators for the manufacturing and operation stages, and comparing the system to a reference one. Results show that the innovative system has a lower overall impact than the reference one. Moreover, a parametric study to evaluate the impact of the refrigerant is carried out, showing that the impact of the overall systems is not affected if the amount of refrigerant or the impact of refrigerant is increased.


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